A 183-GHz Schottky Diode Receiver with 4 dB Noise Figure

Atmospheric science based on space-borne millimeter wave measurements require reliable and state-of-the-art receivers. In particular, the water vapor line at 183.3 GHz motivates the development of sensitive mixers at this frequency. Traditional assembly techniques employed in the production of Schottky diode receivers involve flip-chip mounting and soldering of discrete dies, which prohibit the implementation of reliable and repeatable production processes. In this work, we present a subharmonic 183 GHz mixer implementing a repeatable assembly method using beamlead Schottky diodes. The mixer was integrated with a InP HEMT MMIC low noise intermediate frequency amplifier resulting in a record-low receiver noise temperature of 450 K at 1 mW of local oscillator power measured at room-temperature. The measured Allan time was 10 s and the third order local oscillator spurious power was less than -60 dBm. The proposed assembly method is of particular importance for space-borne missions but also applicable to a wide range of terahertz applications.